Houston’s sunny climate presents a special set of challenges to facade designers and fabricators. (Theodore Scott / Flickr)

Thanks to the city’s humid subtropical climate, facade designers and fabricators face a special set of challenges in Houston. Unchecked, steady sunshine and high temperatures can permeate the building envelope, leading to a heavy reliance on mechanical cooling systems. Meanwhile, Houston’s Gulf Coast location makes it vulnerable to tropical storms.

It appears our friends at engineering firm Buro Happold, which just moved their offices to Downtown Los Angeles, are experiencing some of their own moves. Chief engineers Greg Otto and Sanjeev Tankha have taken their talents to Walter P. Moore, a Santa Monica firm hoping to expand their design expertise and research capabilities. In other moving news, after ten years wHY Design’s founding partner Yo Hakamori has left the firm for DesignARC. And over in New York our friend Dung Ngo has announced he’s leaving Rizzoli. No word why at this point, but according to Ngo the parties are leaving “on the very best of terms.” If only all breakups were as amicable.